The use of electronic mail and/or messaging (xe2x80x9ce-mailxe2x80x9d) is an increasingly popular form of communication for individuals and business alike. The popularity of this communication form is due to it""s relatively inexpensive cost and ease of use as well as several other distinct advantages it has over other forms of communication such as mail and telephone communication, including:
1) Asynchronous communication where messages can be sent, received, and stored for later use;
2) Roaming access, where messages are sent, received and stored on a network and may be retrieved from various devices at various locations;
3) The capacity to attach various files to messages;
4) The capacity to send and receive messages in various formats such as text, audio, video, and various multimedia forms including hypertext markup language; and
5) The capacity to filter in-coming messages based on particular criteria set by the receiving system.
A problem with the popularity of electronic messaging is the vast volume of messages that are sent and received daily and the growing amount of time individuals spend each day sorting through their electronic message xe2x80x9cin-boxxe2x80x9d. Two existing solutions to this problem are: 1) setting up numerous e-mail accounts with selectively distributed addresses and 2) employing the use of client-side filters, that sort incoming e-mails based on pre-defined criteria.
The first solution is the simplest and most common response. Many Internet users today maintain upwards of 4 e-mail accounts as a way to organize their senders and different types of e-mail. After creating several e-mail accounts to suit specific needs, individuals then give out their various electronic e-mail addresses based on the sender. However, maintaining numerous accounts is an unfriendly, awkward and time-consuming method of managing communications for the end user, and costly for the providers. The user must create, and in some instances pay, for the various accounts. They must also remember several addresses and passwords for each account, and must spend valuable time to check the various accounts on a regular basis for new messages. This multiplicity of accounts further complicates the creation of client-side filters that primarily use the sender""s address as the criteria to accept, block or sort. For example, the receiver must create different filters for every account the sender maintains in order to accurately filter mail from that person. Additionally, senders do not know if the address to which they are sending their message is an account the receiver regularly maintains. In cases where the information contained in the message is time sensitive, the probability their message may not be read in a timely manner dramatically increases.
The second approach requires that a user specify a plurality of filters for use in sorting electronic messages. Current filtering methods employ some form of content-based analysis of electronic mail. Content-based filters analyze the address of the sender, the subject, or the body of the body of the electronic messages, and perform predetermined, user-defined actions based on this analysis. The majority of filtering methods put the burden of differentiating electronic messages on the receiver and are supplied on the premise that not all received messages are of equal interest or importance to the receiver.
A significant irritation associated with existing electronic mail is xe2x80x9cspamxe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9cjunk mailxe2x80x9d. Junk mail is predominantly unsolicited in nature, and by definition, of little or no interest to its recipient. Once an individual""s electronic mail address has been included in various xe2x80x9cjunk mailxe2x80x9d senders contact lists, it is sometimes very burdensome and difficult for the individual to be removed from the list. Additionally, lists of electronic mail addresses are very often sold to various organizations and entities without the consent of the address owners. These organizations and entities in turn send unsolicited electronic mail to the addresses on the list, further cluttering the recipient""s in-box and making it increasing problematic to be permanently removed from the lists.
Electronic mail filters are applied to detect and reject in-coming junk mail, both on the individual client level and on the larger xe2x80x9cproviderxe2x80x9d level. Existing filters, however, have achieved only moderate success and have severe limitations. Content-based filtering is difficult to implement accurately for several reasons. First, because filters have static criteria, the junk mail sender can readily re-word certain common phrases to by-pass filters, thus allowing the electronic mail to be accepted by the receiver. Moreover, senders of unsolicited mail regularly change their return addresses and/or domain of origin.
In accordance with a first embodiment of the present invention, a method for providing e-mail communication is provided. The e-mail user interface implements e-mail messaging for a root e-mail address that includes a domain name and a username. Upon receiving a request from a user, the method generates a first suffix e-mail address, and creates a first directory on the e-mail user interface for the first suffix e-mail address. The first suffix e-mail address includes the domain name, the username, and a first suffix name. Upon receiving an e-mail message having a destination address including the domain name and the username, the method stores the e-mail message in the first directory if the destination address includes the first suffix. In accordance with further aspects of this embodiment, a plurality of suffix e-mail addresses can be created, each having a corresponding directory on the e-mail user interface for storing mail addressed to its respective address. Such an emboidment may employ a display screen of any known type or architecture, including, for example, a computer display screen for a desktop computer, a computer display screen for a laptop computer, a display screen for a PDA, a television, or a display screen for a telephone.
In accordance with another aspect of this embodiment, the method, upon receiving a request from a user, designates a sender""s address from a received e-mail as one of an accepted address designation and a rejected address designation. Then, upon receiving an e-mail message from the sender""s address, the method stores the e-mail message in an inbox if the sender""s address has the accepted address designation, and deletes (or stores the message in a directory designated for deleted messages) the e-mail message if the sender""s address has the rejected address designation.
In accordance with yet another aspect of this embodiment, the method comprises the step of maintaining a list of accepted e-mail addresses and a list of rejected e-mail addresses. Moreover, upon receiving an e-mail message having a destination address including the domain name and username, the method further comprises the step of storing the e-mail message in an accepted section of the first directory if the destination address includes the first suffix and the sender""s e-mail address corresponds to an e-mail address on the list of accepted e-mail addresses, and storing the e-mail message in a hold/new sender section of the first directory if the destination address includes the first suffix and the sender""s e-mail address does not correspond to an e-mail address on the list of accepted e-mail addresses and does not correspond to an e-mail address on the list of rejected e-mail addresses. In accordance with still further aspects of this embodiment, each e-mail address on the list of accepted e-mail addresses, and each e-mail address on the list of rejected e-mail addresses, can be associated with one, some, or all of the suffix e-mail addresses.
In accordance with a further aspect of this embodiment, upon receiving an e-mail message having a destination address including the domain name and username, the method further comprises the step of storing the e-mail message in a directory designated for deleted mail messages if the destination address includes the first suffix and the sender""s e-mail address corresponds to an e-mail address on the list of rejected e-mail addresses. Alternatively, upon receiving the e-mail message having a destination address including the domain name and username, the method deletes the e-mail message if the destination address includes the first suffix and the sender""s e-mail address corresponds to an e-mail address on the list of rejected e-mail addresses.
In accordance with another aspect of the first embodiment, the method comprises the steps of associating the first suffix name with a device; and upon receiving an e-mail message having a destination address including the domain name and username, sending the e-mail message to the device if the destination address includes the first suffix name. In this regard, the device can be of a variety of types, including, for example, a printer, a telephone, a PDA (personal data assistant), a televison, a set top box, an MP3 player, an appliance, or a pager.
In accordance with still other aspects of the above embodiment, the first suffix name is a commercial suffix name, the commercial suffix name is associated with a third party e-mail address, and the commercial suffix name is used by a plurality of users having a plurality of username and domain name combinations. It should be appreciated that the term xe2x80x9ccommercialxe2x80x9d, as used herein, is not meant to imply that the third party is a business. Rather, the term xe2x80x9ccommercialxe2x80x9d is meant to encompass businesses, organizations, associations, charities, not-for-profit companies and corporations, governmental agencies, and other entities.
In addition, the methods described above may provide for authenticated and/or encrypted communication between the first suffix e-mail address and the third party e-mail address. Most preferably, this communication supports credit card transactions, banking transactions, and the like.